About candidate resentment
What follows is Chapter 16 of A Career Breakdown Kit (2026).
In many ways it's a snapshot of the whole book, because it's about cutting through assumption and making informed decisions.
While also showing why understanding how recruitment works can improve the steps you take.
Recruitment mirrors, or more accurately inverts, a job search for the same role, so the lessons from one are most always applicable to the other.
'Candidate resentment' is a key opportunity for mindful employers to improve how they engage the market.
It's effective because we know people will make a stand, even if it hurts their prospects, and assume bad behaviour, even when it doesn't exist in that instance.
It's something you should be mindful of when deciding on any step in your job search, in case your decision holds you back:
16 - About candidate resentment
Over the past few years, a phenomenon has come to the fore in recruitment - candidate resentment.
It’s the notion that the experiences candidates have of a recruitment process, and of their wider job search, informs their actions.
Some examples:
- You’ve been lowballed a few times having applied for a job that advertised £competitive salary. Therefore, you won’t waste your time by doing so again
- ‘Hitting the ground running’, ‘a resilient approach’, ‘able to cope with ambiguity’ are red flags in a job advert
- An interviewer who asks silly questions shows a dodgy employer
- A protracted interview process shows a company that can’t make decisions
- ‘I will never apply to a company that uses Workday!!!!!!?!!!! 1!’
- A high number of visible applications makes it pointless to apply for an advert.
On an individual basis, employers won’t see this as a big deal, especially if they’ve filled the vacancy.
However, we live in a connected society where experiences are shared widely, which can create a wave of resentment.
Employers would do well to recognise this phenomenon and deliver a process that does the opposite. This would stand out for candidates and reduce the possibility of candidates stepping away from a recruitment process.
The sale of hope
Candidate resentment is driven by strong emotion and common experience - something that’s easy to take advantage of by the cynical.
How often have you read a promotional message, which said something along the lines of:
How annoying is it when you’ve spent two hours applying for a job and the ATS rejects you instantly? ATS won’t even look at you if your CV / resume isn’t compliant! Buy my ATS compliance writing service
Apply for 100 jobs with no replies? Try the hidden jobs market! Buy my services and I’ll show you the way
Worse, these messages feel true and are widely spread, irrespective of any basis in fact.
And this resentment informs your actions.
Actions which may cut your nose off to spite your face.
What employers do
Recruitment is a rare function that has no continuing professional development and little in the way of best practice to guide employers.
Because there isn’t a north star for the profession, employers often make it up as they go. We don’t have the equivalent of CIMA, ACCA, CIPD, CIPS or any other chartered body in the UK.
We’re an industry that looks at what others do because starting from first principles is hard. If others have a suboptimal process, it’s likely we do too.
It’s one reason why ChatGPT type tools have become so popular - they allow adverts to do exactly the same as everyone else quicker, and perhaps more engagingly. Even if it does nothing to help those adverts sell or stand out.
Where there is a formalised approach, it’s typically because recruitment is contained in another function - such as within HR or Administration, or in the role of a founder.
These are functions which have other priorities, leading to recruitment being seen as an administrative burden rather than a commercial opportunity.
When times are busy, it’s easy to either do recruitment habitually (rather than intentionally) or fit it in where you can (rather than strategically).
Of course, some employers are rubbish at recruitment in the same way they are rubbish at employment.
It’s easy to assume that anyone who gives a poor experience in recruitment will be that kind of employer.
This isn’t true.
Herein lies the problem with candidate resentment, for you, as a job seeker, in a job search that has no doubt created much resentment.
I speak to many employers who do exactly the things people resent yet are great employers for the right people.
Sometimes £competitive salary is stated due to a compensation philosophy that is generous but not fixed. Perhaps not ideal, but not necessarily a lowball.
Some use Workday because of its Accounting and HR functions with the ATS being a bolt on.
And so on.
Real life has nuance that socials don’t show - because nuance reduces engagement. You are less likely to read them, and dopamine hungry writers are less likely to write them.
And you?
Assume nothing.
Where possible, gain insight.
A bad hiring step might hide a great employer.
If you find yourself reacting emotionally to something on socials - stop, breathe and look at it logically. Look for evidence and always ask ‘where is the money?’
The answer to that question may show why a post was written.
Do people want to be popular as hero employers / recruiters / career coaches? Or do they have something to say that’s helpful?
Treat low effort processes reciprocally and invest your energy in the ones that matter.
But you also want to put yourself in a position where you have the best chance of saying no, rather than the employer doing that for you.
You may not like £competitive salary - you can always apply and state your salary expectation. Take note of the application (in case they contact you) and move on.
In some ways resentment is helpful, even healthy - it can protect, it can help you cope, it can help you heal, it can flag danger to others.
Take care not to let it define how you act or who you are.
